The new Solicitor General — Elena Kagan — has until May 8 to file an opposition to the Navajo Nation cert petition. From there, the petitioners can file a reply brief, and the case will head to the Conference, likely in June. Assuming the government opposes the petition, the Court historically is extremely likely to deny cert, especially in a non-criminal case. However, the petitioners have made a credible case that the Ninth Circuit’s en banc opinion — defining “substantial burden” under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to be far more narrow than any other federal circuit — has created a viable circuit split.

While this case may be held in a court of law, and is burden with all the fallacies of man’s profanity when dealing with holy things or thoughts, it is indeed something that can and will be won by prayer and fasting. I would ask all Hopi, Dine’, Apache, Zuni, Paiute, and others that offer prayers and offerings in respect of the holy mountains called Dook’o’siliid to pray and remind the nation that there have to be some things worth more than man’s profit and the earth’s loss.